BengeBoy 

I have been idly thinking about fitness goals - which leads to my First Ever BF Poll*.

One of my goals is to be fit enough as a cyclist so that I could ride a century (miles, not kilometers) at any point in time, as long as I had a few days warning to ease up for a few days in advance.

"Riding a century" to me means:

- finish at a decent, but not race, pace
- riding comfortably - which means not just finishing, but having enough time on the bike so that when I do a century-length ride my butt, neck, hands, feet, etc. are accustomed to hours in the saddle
- feel pretty good the next day -- like I could do another long ride the next day, even if I don't.

I'm wondering how much "cycling fitness" this means.

I'm *not* talking about:
- training for a first century, or training for a "fast" century
- learning about nutrition, pacing or hydration
- or even prepping for the first century of the year...

...but talking about a normal, weekly level of mileage required to be "century-ready" - pump up the tires, fill the water bottles, grab some food and go.

One rule of thumb I've read is that "you can ride in a day what you normally ride in a week." That would imply that if you wanted to always be ready for a 100-mile ride, you'd need to be "normally" riding 100 miles/week.

That seems a little high to me; I think if you've got a good base layer of fitness and you've ridden centuries before, you could be ready for a century about any time if you were riding less than that.

What do you think?


* A quote from Churchill: "Never was such a pointless question asked of so many by so few."

stapfam

Even with my limited riding at present I could do a metric tomorrow. The 100 miler though and from my current state- I would have to get a bit of training in. I can't ride much midweek but I would be doing two rides a week of 20 miles each. One taking in hills and the other a flat ride but at a pace that is better than my normal metric pace. Then the weekend would be as many worthwhile miles I can manage. That may mean 3,000ft of climbing in 30 miles or 50 miles on the flat.

But in the summer this would be my normal riding so a 100 miler should be on the cards by about May. But before I do that ride- I would have done a couple of metrics to get the butt and mind attuned.

Allegheny Jet

I'm not sure of the effort you wish to expend. I don't think it's how many miles a week to ride but rather how often do you ride 2/3 of the distance at the pace you wish to ride the century.

BengeBoy 

I agree with you on this -- thus it's a mix of staying on the bike, plus doing a long-ish ride often enough so that you feel "century ready", isn't it?

Let's say you normally ride 60 miles a week -- to make the math simple (and keep the pace low), assume that's four one-hour rides a week. Then every 3 weeks you throw in a 67-mile ride as a substitute for one of your shorter rides so you've done your "2/3 of the distance ride" on a regular basis. That would work out to about 112 miles that week.

So every 3 weeks you're riding a cycle of:
1. Week 1: 60 miles (four one-hour rides)
2. Week 2: 60 miles (four one-hour rides)
3. Week 3: 112 miles (3 one-hour rides, one 67 mile ride)

...and then repeat, forever...

...is that "enough" to always be ready?

Allegheny Jet

In simplicity, Two things your body will need. 1- the ability to feed itself from stored fuel and food you introduce over several hours. 2- the ability to sustain the riding position, continuous motion and sustained force for several hours. If your training and adaption enables you to do that, then your plan is good to go. If you can't do either on the two, then you need to include some training rides during the "off weeks" to train those functions.

jdon

My normal weekly schedule is:

M-off
T- 75
W-50, race pace.
T-off
F-30, moderately fast
S-100+
S-25, recovery

I have a "Saturday Century" group of friends that varies between 2 and 15 riders. I occaisionally do a double on Saturdays or add another century ride on Sunday. If I am away at work, I find a gym with a spin bike and put in the approximate ride time in.

I think I could do less and still be in "Century anytime" condition.

10 Wheels

Might be different for each rider.

I went on a century fest in Oct.
I had 1176 miles in Sept.

Depends much, if you have or run into some type of problem.

This doesn't answer your question.

The Weak Link

I hope you're talking about km and not miles, although even in km I'd consider that pretty hard core.

Last year I did several 300 mile months and had no problem doing a flat relaxed century. I could do a hilly century but would suffer a lot.

jdon

No, I convert to imperial for BF. For a working stiff, it doesn't leave much time for other activities.

tsl

I need a few more miles than most to stay "century-ready", since most of my rides are commuting in stop-and-go traffic. If I can get in a 40-50 miler or so once a week for a couple of weeks before a century, that seems to add what I need.

With just my commuting as base training, I can hop on the bike for a metric any old time.

LesterOfPuppets

In addition to my 8-12 miles M-F mileage, if I've done a half century within the past 30 days and felt pretty good about it afterwards I'd feel fairly confident about rolling out for a century.

Mojo Slim

I ride 3X a week (weather permitting), most rides are in the 40-60 mile range and always include some hills. When the weather is nicer, we throw in some 75-80 milers. I think I could do a century at anytime.

DnvrFox

Quote:

I have been idly thinking about fitness goals

Well, that's your first mistake. Idle thinking is the Devil's playground.

Secondly, have you defined "fitness goals" too narrowly, or is this just one of several fitness goals?

BengeBoy 

One of several, still not nailed down to specifics.

The short story is that I'm averaging something over 5,600 miles a year since my return to cycling in 2007. One of my initial goals was to ride a century -- last year that morphed to "ride a century on any day." I'm pretty comfortable with doing some very challenging centuries on practically any day of the year right now (as long as the weather is somewhat reasonable) but I'm likely riding *more* miles than I need to in order to be century-ready.

My goals for 2011 might be something like:

- fewer cycling miles over all but still enough to be "century-ready"
- a little more focus on structured training (still trying to define what this means)
- more time hiking w/my son, some weight lifting
- maintain goal of commuting to work 120x per year on the bike (I have found this is a *great* way to pace my riding through the year and keep my on the bike in bad weather)
- lose some weight !

DnvrFox

OK - Great

I view "fitness" from a broad perspective.

"Physical fitness" for me includes

Muscular Strength
Muscular Endurance
Cardio-Vascular Endurance
Body Composition
Flexibility

And I also add, but won't specifically itemize

Spiritual fitness
Financial fitness
Emotional fitness
etc.

Bicylcing fits into the above in a variety of perspectives, cutting across several categories. But it doesn't cover them all, which is why I also do a lot of resistance exercises, stretching, fast walking, swimming, and I participate in a lot of other activities including social, music, church, etc.

Well, you get my point, and I have thrown this thread way off-topic. I guess we need a "soapbox" emoticon for folks like me!!

BengeBoy 

Not at all off-topic. The point of the poll / my post is not to elicit new/higher mileage goals, but maybe (if anything) to encourage some of us to be well rounded.

There are all kinds of goals on this forum, which range from:

- Getting back on the bike after years of not-riding.
- Riding 20 miles the first time after a medical setback
- Riding a metric century, Imperial century, or double century
- Racing at a highly competitive level

Mine evolved into "be ready to ride a century on any day," and that seems to fit me pretty well, and I think it gives me time to do other stuff as well.

cyclinfool

I think the conversation between AJ and BB was headed in the right direction. In my experience a normal training regime of less than 100 miles a week with a metric century thrown in every few weeks is all one needs to be century ready. However that does not guarantee success, I also think that you would have needed to be experienced in riding a century as well, you need to know how to pace yourself, hydrate and refuel. It is combination of things that will allow you to be century reading with a minimum of physical preparation. In the OPs case, I would think he could be century ready in short order matching his pace with his conditioning - not expecting a less than 5 hr time right out of the shoot. Others might try with a fast start and blow up well before the end, then have a miserable finish struggling in at a very slow pace.

stapfam

I used to do a 100 miler that was hard. I used to train all year for this one but that training was solid for 4 months of the year from February to June. The rest of the year was just doing ordinary rides or climbing what felt like Mountains---For fun. Part of that fun was just doing a 100 mile road ride because my mates were doing it and they suddenly had a place on Saturday in the team for the ride on Sunday.

If you want to be able to do a 100 miler at the drop of a hat- Then ytou have to be fit- you have to train all year round and train well.

Or you can decide that in four weeks time there is a ride so I had better geting some riding in.

crazyb

I think if you spend some of the time you've used racking up 5600 miles on some core conditioning you will be far more ready to do a century at any time. A good solid core will give you faster recovery and you will be able to hold your form better making you more efficient. Legs aren't everything.

BikeArkansas

I rode a CAM in 2010. Basically, my training was 100 miles per week. I never failed to complete a century, as I was ready any time. I had to be ready at any time due to work and other factors. When a time to ride a century came about I had to be ready to ride it. Similar to the condition you are discussing.

My brother trains a completely different way. He only rides a 35 mile course. However, this course is extremely tough and he rides it hard. He can go ride a century any time even though he only trains on a 35 mile course.

Maybe this means there is not an exact answer for your quest for being ready to ride a century.

The Weak Link

What's a CAM?

Regarding the OP: 5600 miles per annum would be considered a very adequate base for most people.

I bet most of the people who post here with any regularity (no bowel jokes, please) are in physical shape to do a century on short notice, especially if it's pretty flat.

What's harder for me is to be prepared for the pain of it all, knowing that more likely than not towards the end of the century I will fantasize over tossing my bike into the Ohio River.

The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak.

DnvrFox

I think a "Centiry A Month"

LesterOfPuppets

Cycle Across Missouri ?

smoore

Obviously a lot depends on your conditioning, your age, etc. However I think I would have some concerns with the concept of "riding in a week what you want to ride in a day".

While weekly mileage is important so is maximum time and mileage at one sitting....ie; your butt. If you rode 20 miles a day, seven days a week most people would not even be close to being able to complete a century. It is imperative that you get your butt, hands and core to the point where a 60-75 mile ride is doable.

Allegheny Jet

Considering his total mileage for 2010 he is a Gold Standard Member of the Century A Month Club.